LEN-0240
Overreach Lens
Detects structure that exceeds declared scope or authority reach.
Primary Pattern Matches
Overreach
A structural condition where actions, effects, authority, or modifications extend beyond declared scope without authorization.
Lens Application
The Overreach Lens is a primary inspection mechanism for Overreach because it directs attention to mismatches between stated scope and actual reach. It helps surface cases where authority, modification, access, or downstream impact may exceed what was declared, bounded, or permitted.
Inspect For
- Actions extending past stated scope
- Authority used beyond assigned boundaries
- Modifications affecting undeclared areas
- Effects reaching unintended systems or parties
Avoid
Treat scope mismatch as a signal for inspection rather than a settled finding of Overreach.
Undeclared Side Effect
A structural condition where an operation modifies regions outside its declared target scope without a declared propagation or side-effect rule.
Lens Application
The Overreach Lens is a primary inspection mechanism for Undeclared Side Effects because it directs attention to mismatches between declared operational scope and observed effects. It helps surface cases where changes propagate beyond authorized regions without an explicit side-effect or propagation rule.
Inspect For
- Modifications outside the declared target scope
- Effects on adjacent, inherited, or shared regions
- Missing propagation or side-effect declarations
- Authority boundaries exceeded during execution
Avoid
Treat scope excess as an inspection signal requiring follow-up rather than proof that an Undeclared Side Effect has occurred.
Related Issues
Action Changed Something Else Too
An AI or agent action makes the requested change but also changes another object, field, file, state, rule, or workflow element that was not supposed to change.
Agent Keeps Expanding the Task
The agent repeatedly expands the task, plan, scope, or next-step list instead of completing the declared work.
Agent Modified Unrelated State
An agent changes state outside the requested task, target, file, record, workflow, or authorized scope.
Agent Permission Expands Over Steps
An agent begins with limited permission but gains, assumes, or exercises broader authority as the workflow continues.
AI Adds Work Not Requested
The AI adds tasks, steps, analysis, checks, changes, or follow-up work that the user did not ask for.
AI Touches Unrelated Scope
The AI affects, edits, analyzes, changes, or reasons over material outside the scope of the requested task.
AI Uses External Information When Forbidden
The AI uses outside knowledge, sources, tools, memory, or assumptions after the task forbids external information or limits the allowed source set.
Automation Skips Required Approval
An automated AI or workflow step proceeds past an approval gate that should have been required before action.
Behavior Does Not Match Declared Role
The AI or agent behaves outside, below, or differently from the role, authority, responsibility, or permission posture declared for it.
File-Bounded Task Uses Outside Content
The AI is asked to work only from a specific file or document but uses content, assumptions, or sources outside that file.
Hallucinated Fields
The AI adds fields, keys, attributes, columns, or structured elements that were not declared, requested, or allowed by the expected schema.
Local Rule Spreads to Broader Cases
A rule intended for one local case, file, context, user, workflow, or exception begins affecting broader cases.
Model Output Triggers Unapproved Action
AI output causes, recommends, or triggers an action that has not passed the required approval, permission, or authority check.
No Owner for Agent Action
An agent action can affect the system without a declared responsible owner, authority, or accountable decision path.
Policy Exception Spreads Too Far
A narrow policy exception, allowance, or special case spreads beyond its intended scope and begins governing broader cases.
Repair Step Created New Breakage
A repair, correction, retry, or fix step addresses one problem but introduces a new failure elsewhere.
Retrieval Exceeds Evidence Limit
The AI retrieves, uses, cites, or considers more evidence than the task permits or more than the review surface can support.
Review Outcome Changes Unrelated Environment
A review result, approval, rejection, or classification changes state outside the environment, case, file, or workflow it was meant to govern.
Routing Overrides Task Intent
Routing, mode selection, agent behavior, or workflow classification sends the task down a path that overrides what the user was trying to accomplish.
Small Error Spreads Into Large Failure
A small AI, output, routing, or workflow error propagates through later steps until it becomes a larger failure.
Too Many Tool Calls
The AI or agent makes more tool calls, searches, retrievals, API calls, or integration actions than the task requires or permits.
Tool Can Act Without Responsible Authority
A tool, connector, function, or integration can perform an action without a declared responsible authority for that action.